Improving Your Relationship For Dummies Book Summary - Improving Your Relationship For Dummies Book explained in key points
Listen to the Intro
00:00

Improving Your Relationship For Dummies summary

Paula Hall

The hands-on, practical guide for couples

4.3 (86 ratings)
21 mins
Table of Contents

    Improving Your Relationship For Dummies
    Summary of 9 key ideas

    Audio & text in the Blinkist app
    Key idea 1 of 9

    A strong relationship rests on compatibility, intimacy and day-to-day stability.

    Every relationship has its ups and downs. When you hit a rough patch, it’s easy to forget about the positive things and dwell on the negative. If you want to improve your relationship, however, you have to build on its strengths.

    All solid romantic relationships have three core strengths: compatibility, intimacy and day-to-day stability.

    The first core strength, compatibility, is the foundation of your relationship. It’s the degree to which you and your partner actually suit each other. Do you have the same outlook on life? Do you share the same passions or interests?

    People change as they get older, and compatibility changes accordingly. However, your core principles and life goals – a desire to have children, for instance, or a belief in monogamy – generally don’t change much over time, and it’s these goals and principles that truly form the foundation of compatibility.

    The second core strength is intimacy: how close you and your partner really are. Intimacy doesn’t just appear out of nowhere; it’s a product of time and deep mutual understanding.

    There are three different kinds of intimacy. Emotional intimacy is about how openly you share your emotions. Intellectual intimacy is about how well you understand each other's thought processes. And physical intimacy is about how well you connect physically, through touch or sex.

    Each kind of intimacy is important, but it’s unlikely that a couple will feel perfectly intimate in each arena. Identifying which area of intimacy needs work is the first step toward improving it.

    The last core strength, day-to-day stability, concerns how your relationship plays out on a daily level. Stability is extremely valuable; indeed, a relationship isn’t sustainable without it.

    Your relationship simply can’t survive if it suffers from daily tension, no matter how compatible or intimate you are. When it comes to romance, harmony in your daily life is absolutely crucial to long-term success.

    Want to see all full key ideas from Improving Your Relationship For Dummies?

    Key ideas in Improving Your Relationship For Dummies

    More knowledge in less time
    Read or listen
    Read or listen
    Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
    Find your next read
    Find your next read
    Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
    Shortcasts
    Shortcasts New
    We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

    What is Improving Your Relationship For Dummies about?

    Improving Your Relationship For Dummies (2010) provides simple techniques for couples hoping to boost their intimacy, sharpen their communication and overcome challenges in a productive, healthy way. It offers advice for both new couples that want to start off on the right foot and long-term couples that hope to get things back on track.

    Who should read Improving Your Relationship For Dummies?

    • Couples going through a rough patch
    • Partners hoping to improve communication
    • Anyone thinking about entering a relationship

    About the Author

    Paula Hall is a writer and psychotherapist who specializes in helping couples overcome sexual and romantic problems. She is also the founder of The Institute for Sex Addiction Training and Head of Recovery for The Naked Truth Project.

     

    © Paula Hall: Improving Your Relationship For Dummies copyright 2010, John Wiley & Sons Inc. Used by permission of John Wiley & Sons Inc. and shall not be made available to any unauthorized third parties.

    Categories with Improving Your Relationship For Dummies

    Books like Improving Your Relationship For Dummies

    People ❤️ Blinkist
    Sven O.

    It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

    Thi Viet Quynh N.

    Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

    Jonathan A.

    Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

    Renee D.

    Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.

    People also liked

    Start growing with Blinkist now
    27 Million
    Downloads on all platforms
    4.7 Stars
    Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
    91%
    Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
    *Based on survey data from Blinkist customers
    Powerful ideas from top nonfiction

    Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.

    Start your free trial